Love, Friendship, and Impossibilities:Declarations
by Lina03
Summary: Companion piece to Love, Friendship, and Impossibilities; just a bit of back-story.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter; None of the original story and/or characters are mine in any way nor do I make any money from these writings.

**Warnings**: This story is completely AU hints at a Slash pairing, and is intended for a mature audience; meant as a companion piece to _Love, Friendship, and Impossibilities_ (just a bit of back-story).

_**Happy Holidays Everyone!**_ =)

**Love, Friendship, and Impossibilities: Declarations**

"What the…Hello, Voldy where did you go?" Harry asked confused. They had been having quite a riveting discussion concerning the differentiation and the pros/cons associated with henchmen and friendships.

"Voldemort is no longer here." An androgynous voice answered him calmly. "I am here with a proposal. You and Voldemort have been in a coma for over a year now and will remain thus until you die: This is unacceptable."

"First of all who exactly are you and second, how did you get into my head?" Harry asked in an irate and defensive tone.

"I am the Fate that Be. It is my duty to ensure that certain events come to pass as they are fated to. You have strayed from your path and as such your world will remain in a state of limbo until it fades from existence without guidance from the Gods. Your destiny as of now is not what was intended for you and so I am here to correct this oversight."

Harry burst out laughing, figuratively of course since this was all taking place in his mind.

The Fate continued as calmly as before. "Belief is not necessary for my plans; however it would be to your benefit to cooperate. I will send you back in time in order to fulfill your destiny, for only you can destroy Voldemort…"

Harry stopped laughing and sighed, interrupting before 'Fate' could continue. "Is it really necessary for me to kill him? I've had no one to talk to but him since we ended up in this mess and to be honest, I've been stuck like this long enough to have Stockholm syndrome. I am tired of fighting and bloodshed and if this all you can offer me then I rather we all just fade into oblivion than go through this bullshit all over again. You can send me back right now if you want, but believe me when I say I'll just move to Tahiti the first chance I get, I refuse to be your plaything any longer."

Harry really was tired of it all. He hated that he had never had control over his life and now that all he had to do was wait for death, he was denied that too. It was obvious that his fate was too intertwined with Voldemort's for him to ever be free of him but perhaps, if he had to live, he could at least make his future something he could live with.

"Voldemort has already wasted his chance at redemption. We offered him the chance to change his destiny once and he refused, we do not make such an offering twice. This is _your_ one chance: we are willing to send you back so you can repeat your Hogwarts years. This time you will know what is happening and will be able to act accordingly. Do you accept?"

Harry didn't even have to think about it long. "I don't. I **don't** want to kill anyone ever again, not even Voldemort. If you must send me anywhere, why don't you send me to grow up with him instead? De-age me….send me back to when he was left at the orphanage and perhaps my influence will be enough to change his fate, if I fail then have someone else deal with him. I will not do what you want and I am more than willing to let my world fade into nothingness if I must, so really the choice is yours."

Silence.

"It can be done but this is not what we had prepared for. If I do as you request you will have to pay a price."

"What is it?" Harry huffed, not really surprised with this development.

"You won't ever be able to tell anyone where you came from or what you know and you will never have any children of your own. Time and space can only be changed so much before it collapses on itself, if you were to have a child in a time you are not even supposed the be alive in, the consequences would be…objectionable. Do you accept?"

"I do."

******

Harry woke up too tired to even open his eyes. He was on his stomach but not really uncomfortable though it was not his most favorite of positions…and that's when he noticed what woke him up to begin with: the sound of a baby crying nearby.

"What are we going to do now?! This is the second one today; we have neither the space nor the staff to care for so many!"

"Just put the basket in one of the bigger cribs and we'll take it from there. If there is one thing I know is that brats grow up like weeds, he'll be earning his keep soon enough."

As Harry felt someone lifting the basket he was evidently in, he sighed and cursed the fates that landed him in this place. Already he could tell that this childhood wasn't going to be much better than the one he'd lived when among the Dursleys, but then again…at least this time he won't be growing up alone.

******

_11 Years Later_

"I was rather surprised when I received your letter. Neither Tom nor Harry has ever had a visitor. In all honestly I hope you are able to separate them. Young Harry is good child and other than the occasional childish roughhousing we've had no problem with him. Tom however is…well to be frank: he's strange. Odd things happen around him and though staff members rarely catch him participating in any wayward behavior the other children are openly afraid of him…"

"Separate them, madam? I was under the impression that these children were twins…?"

"Oh not at all!" Mrs. Cole replied sounding close to horrified. "They both arrived here on the same day, if at different times. Only Tom was left with a piece of paper telling us his full name and his parentage. Harry however, simply had the name _Harry_ written on his clothes. For the sake of simplicity we decided to use the same surname for both children since they did look somewhat alike....And here we are…"

Dumbledore nodded to Mrs. Cole and entered the small dormitory after giving his plum velvet suit a last look-over. Though there were six beds in the crammed room only the two boys he was here to see were in attendance.

The boys were standing side by side looking out the room window when he entered but they turned to face him when they heard him come in. They were about the same height but while Tom Riddle had light green eyes and a close-cut hair style, Harry Riddle had bright green eyes and his hair was pulled back into a braid that reached just below his shoulder blades.

When he approached, rather than encountering curiosity as Dumbledore expected, the children were rather expressionless. Still, Dumbledore wasn't fazed by this and smiled kindly to begin the introductions. "Good morning boys."

"Good morning, sir." Harry replied politely.

Tom nodded at him, not being outright rude but obviously guarded.

"I'm Professor Dumbledore."

"Professor? As in doctor?" Tom asked with narrowed eyes; Harry didn't say anything, clearly waiting for Dumbledore to explain himself.

"Like I said, I'm Professor Dumbledore and I work at a school called Hogwarts. I am here to offer you both a place there if you wish to come."

For some reason Dumbledore had yet to fathom this reply made Tom looked ready to explode in anger but Harry was quick to step in front of him before anything else happened. Dumbledore, for his part, had to force himself to continue smiling; he had never seen such fierce eyes in a child before.

"We don't appreciate being tricked. You don't want to mess with us professor and I suggest you stop playing around and tell us why you are really here." Tom said, eyes still flashing with antagonism.

"I am not trying to trick anyone. Hogwarts is a very special school. It is a school of magic as a matter of fact." Dumbledore stated with enthusiasm, finally understanding the source of their discontent.

Harry then stepped to the side once more and looked to his friend as if he could tell what Tom was thinking just by looking at him. Dumbledore watched all this with growing interest, trying to reconcile everything Mrs. Cole had told him about them with what he was seeing.

"Magic? Is that we do? We are using magic?" Tom asked calm once more but unable, or perhaps indisposed, to hide his growing interest.

"What is it exactly that you can do?" Dumbledore asked looking at the both of them.

Tom shrugged but looked toward Harry once more as if looking for something and he didn't stop looking until Harry smiled at him.

Dumbledore was surprised. He never would have thought that such a small change of expression could change a child's demeanor so extensively. Harry no longer looked cold and unapproachable, but kind, warm, and almost sweet (in a childish kind of way of course).

Dumbledore then realized that Tom had stopped looking at Harry and was glaring at him instead. Tom then placed his hand behind Harry's neck and either Harry knew what he sought or Tom informed Harry what he wanted without Dumbledore noticing, but whatever the case, Harry now sat on the bed with Tom standing next to him, his hand still on Harry's neck as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

Dumbledore felt disconcerted. Tom had obviously seen his scrutiny of Harry and was responding with a single message, stating loud and clear: '_He's mine_.'

Dumbledore couldn't help but feel intrigued by their behavior and he wondered if they knew what their behavior implied; such actions were usually only seen among couples that had been bonded for many years, not prepubescent children.

"We can move things without touching them. We can make animals do what we want them to; affect people around us, keep them away from us or heal them if we want—" Tom interrupted Harry's reply with a soft snort and a sneer. "Only Harry can heal others, I don't bother with that stuff. So, how do we know you're not from an insane asylum or something? Can you prove you are a _wizard_ then? "

Dumbledore didn't bother replying and drew his wand from the inner pocket of his suit jacket, waiving it casually at the small wardrobe beside their bed and it went up in flames.

Surprisingly, neither child looked truly angry. Tom's eyes were narrowed and his features practically yelled hatred but not anger. Harry however, was very calm and even had a small mysterious smile on his face. At some point (which Dumbledore admitted to himself to have missed) one of Harry's hands had moved from his lap to Tom's lower back and considering how little Dumbledore knew of them he could not say with absolute certainty, but he would wager the Sorting Hat that Harry's touch was the only thing keeping Tom from verbally attacking him at that moment.

These children's relationship was very strong and he looked forward to seeing where it led to, but for now he was happy to see that nothing had turned up from his little test: there were no stolen goods or weapons hidden in the wardrobe, so he happily canceled the spell with a flourish of his wand, leaving the wardrobe completely undamaged and flame-free once more.

"Will we have to get one of those?" Tom asked as he sat down next to Harry in a huff. "We are orphans as I'm sure you've realized."

"That won't be a problem. Hogwarts has a reasonable financial assistance program for students in need of it. You might need to buy your spellbooks and robes secondhand, but — "

"Where will we buy our supplies?" Harry interrupted for the first time, looking more curious than eager.

"In Diagon Alley," Dumbledore said. "I brought with me a list of books, and school equipment that you will need. I can guide you there and help you acquire all this if you wish."

"I think we can handle Diagon Alley on our own, Professor… But thank you for offering." Harry replied politely and listened to Dumbledore's instructions as the professor gave them identical leather money-pouches. Dumbledore had thought about insisting to accompany them their first time in Diagon Alley, but one look at Tom's expression and he decided to let the matter be.

A little while later, as he stepped out of the rundown building, he let out a high spirited chuckle; things were definitely going to be interesting at Hogwarts this year.

******

Harry Riddle, formerly Harry Potter, reflected on the strange turn his life had taken. In all honesty, he hadn't thought that his presence would make any difference this time around. In his old life it had taken him over three months just to get Voldemort to actually talk to him; as opposed to being ignored or listening to a Dark Lord's ranting none stop for days at a time.

Once he got him talking however, Harry had gotten to know a manipulative megalomaniacal sadist withobsessive compulsive tendencies that he had just been unable to really hate. And as strange as that sounded, for all of his flaws, Harry had found Voldemort to be an intelligent and (believe it or not) a witty conversationalist once he got used to his dark sort of humor. In the months that followed they had spent their time talking, just talking, there was nothing else they could have done after all, Harry had enjoyed it thoroughly.

Obviously the first two months before that, he'd spent them trying to find a way out of his situation but in the end finally accepting his inevitable outcome, and once he did that it was just a matter of getting Voldemort to accept it as well, and once he'd managed that, his 'life' had been the best it had ever been.

He didn't have hateful relatives to worry about; he didn't have an army of wizards he must care for. He didn't have to evade assassination attempts every time he managed to find a moment alone or have to listen to a demanding girlfriend going on about how much of a failure he was as a boyfriend.

For the first time in his life he had peace and felt content…but of course it was not to last.

Fortunately, this little trip to the past was not as useless as he'd initially assumed. As far as Harry could tell, he had somehow managed to curb Tom's sadistic inclination and though Tom was still manipulative and antisocial, he didn't seem interested on world domination or collecting trophies of his victims and such.

As far as Harry was concerned he'd done his job. Voldemort had changed enough not to become the Dark Lord he'd known before and if he should become a Dark Lord again, he wouldn't be the sadistic, hateful one that he'd learned to understand and almost sympathized with.

As he walked with Tom about Diagon Alley, buying their Hogwarts supplies, Harry couldn't help but be excited about his future. Once in Hogwarts, Tom would be able to meet new people and make a new friend or two. Harry knew he'd always be Tom's friend as long as Tom allowed it, but with time he will cease to be Tom's best friend and will simply go his own way. Tom being Tom will most likely go into politics and Harry didn't have such high aspirations. Harry just wanted to graduate, find a good paying job, and save up enough money to open an orphanage for children of magical families, especially rejected squibs.

Harry had resigned himself to the fact that he would never have a family of his own and a small orphanage will give him the opportunity to teach and share what he could with other orphans like himself. He'd never shared his plan with anyone, not even Tom, but it didn't matter. He would do it and this time, he was determined to grasp happiness for as long as he could.

He wasn't afraid of a little hard work and he did like being Tom's friend. He just hoped that Tom would not forget about him completely once they left Hogwarts, but if he did, Harry had a goal to reach; he would be happy whether Tom chose to forget about him or not.

******

Tom M. Riddle was a rather cold child. He didn't care for other people and preferred to be alone; the only exception to this was his Harry, his reserved friend who somehow always knew how he felt and what he needed. By their fourth birthday Harry was probably the only other person that Tom cared for. He couldn't remember a time when Harry hadn't been there for him; his earliest memory in fact, was of Harry protecting him from a bully in the playpen that had taken his milk-bottle.

By the time Tom was five he had discovered his power and he used it shamelessly. He could command animals, move things around a bit, and even hurt others if they were annoying enough. There were very few things he could tolerate and even less that he actually liked; still, he didn't really hate others he just didn't care if he had to hurt someone else to get his way.

But he never did it in front of Harry, unless he felt he absolutely had to. Harry was too kind hearted and became upset when he did things like that, so he rarely did it anymore.

Both Tom and Harry had the unfortunate misfortune of being small for their ages, though nowadays of course, Tom took care of bullies by himself and that included anyone that dared to lay a hand on what was his, especially Harry. For all of his infuriating sense of fair play and much too gentle heart, Harry was the only person Tom actually wanted to protect and fight for.

Nothing angered him more than to discover Harry nursing a bruise or a bloody nose and then to have him refuse to tell him who had done it; but if Harry didn't want to talk there was no force on earth that could make him, not even Tom. Nonetheless, Tom had his ways, and if there was one thing he was good at it was getting revenge, and putting dead animals in the offenders beds was the tamest of his reprisals, which is probably why Harry knew better than to tell him anything.

The last time Tom had hurt anyone had been when he'd made sure Harry's last name got changed. Unlike him, no one knew anything at all about Harry, other than his fist name, so the unimaginative idiots had simply put 'Unknown' as Harry's last name and had left it at that. Harry had never told him how he felt about the inadequate moniker, but Tom was not Harry's best friend for nothing, and he knew how sad Harry truly felt about it. So he took matters into his own hands on their eight birthday and made sure that Mrs. Cole changed Harry's surname to Riddle. It had taken him a week of work but she had done it. Mrs. Cole had been so terrified of him by the end of that week that Harry had figured out what he'd done and somehow made sure that Mrs. Cole forgot about the whole thing, but Harry had kept his name, much to Tom's pleasure.

Such behavior was classic of Harry and Tom was the only one who knew just how powerful Harry actually was. Harry could do things that Tom would have never even thought of but for some reason Harry rarely used his power. Sure he joined him in the occasional prank but he never used his power for revenge or control, mostly it was only when he felt he had to and as Tom watched his friend deal with the people of Diagon Alley he realized that he wouldn't want his Harry any other way. He liked being the only one to know the _real_ Harry. Though Harry was kind and polite to everyone whenever possible, he didn't express himself as truthfully as he did while in Tom's company. Nor did he care about whatever Hogwarts had in store for them.

Come hell or high water he wasn't going to let Harry get away from him…not now, not ever.

**

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Note**: Suggestions & tips to help me improve are always welcome, in any of my stories.


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